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Drinking enough water isn’t too hard

By William C. Wadsack

Herald Democrat

I’m trying to be healthier, and drinking enough water everyday is one of the tasks I’ve taken on to accomplish that.

I know not everyone likes drinking plain water, but I’ve always enjoyed it — in moderation. It was never something that I made sure I drank every day, but a big glass of ice water every so often hit the spot. I usually made sure I drank enough fluids by focusing on things that had more flavor — like tea, cola and juices.

Carbonated water is still water, I would always argue.

However, after a recent health issue, I’ve taken to drinking two liters of water a day. Initially I had a one-liter bottle I would fill up twice a day, but I recently bought a reusable water bottle — it actually looks more like a jug — that holds two liters all by itself.

Without looking it up, I thought, for sure, I was hitting the recommended level of daily water consumption. When it was recently suggested to me that I needed to double my daily intake, I balked. That’s well over a gallon.

There’s only so much water a person can take.

So I looked up the old adage that a person should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day. That equals a little under two liters, which meant I was right and had been drinking the right amount.

Then I found another article, written by the staff of the internationally renowned Mayo Clinic, that cites the Institute of Medicine — founded under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences. The article stated, an average adult male should drink about three liters of water a day, while an average adult woman should drink a little over two liters a day.

Dismayed, I started to click away to begin my search for a reusable water jug that could hold three liters — when the end of the article caught my eye.

The Mayo Clinic staff recommended that the adage be changed from water to read “fluid,” because all fluids count toward a healthy daily total. So I can stick with two liters of water a day and fill in the rest of the requirement with lemonade and root beer.